Billy the Kid (TTT episode)
Summary After escaping from Veracruz, Mexico, in 1519 from the previous episode, Tony Newman and Doug Phillips are sent forward a few centuries ahead to1881 in the town of Lincoln, New Mexico. They immediately run for cover as a gang of men ride through the streets on horses while firing their guns, which Newman and Phillips end up ducking into the local sheriff’s office for cover. The lone peace officer there tells them not to worry, it was just a local gang making noise. However, seconds later they barge in so a mysterious figure in a cell can be released, who turns out to be famous outlaw Billy the Kid, who then kills the sheriff in cold blood. Newman had tried to wrestle the gun away from Billy, who tells Newman that he’ll be let go if he can make a break for the outside horses. Phillips grabs a gun and shoots Billy the Kid at point blank range, then he and Newman flee while Billy’s posse is distracted at Billy’s seemingly sudden murder. Meanwhile, the personnel at Project Tic-Toc are stunned and don’t see how it’s possible that history was altered so much with Billy the Kid being killed. Due to time travel and viewing history unfolding in front of them, site operations take so much power they always lose contact with Newman and Phillips for several hours, no matter what time period they are in, which they use the time to try to look up concrete information on when and how Billy the Kid died, but most of his life is enshrouded in unconfirmed legend. Meanwhile, Newman and Phillips hold up in a shack that does not appear to be inhabited while they contemplate fleeing the town. Back at the jail, as it turned out, Billy the Kid’s belt buckle saved him from the bullet, which he tells a member of his posse that he will hunt down Newman and Phillips. Once he does locate them, Newman was outside, away from Phillips while Billy confronts and threatens to kill Phillips. Then, back at Project Tic-Toc, Heywood Kirk makes a voice communication with the past, which distracts Billy long enough for Newman and Phillips to overtake him. Newman then says he is going to ride back into town to let the sheriff’s office know that they have Billy. Unfortunately with hardly anyone ever seeing Billy’s face, the local townspeople recognize Billy’s hat (which Newman is wearing) and he gets arrested (which he was also carrying Billy’s gun). Although one of the sheriffs (Pat Garrett) does confirm that Newman is not Billy, an angry mob forms outside the jail and demands that Newman is hung. Garrett sends a deputy out so he can drive a stampede through town, which then he and Newman escape to the holdout where Billy was held. Unfortunately Billy’s posse had tracked him down and freed him as Phillips hid in a water well, but Billy later gets captured. Background information/trivia *It was revealed for the first time during the series that it was a regular pattern with Project Tic-Toc to lose contact with Newman and Phillips for a few hours after every time they were shifted to a new time period. *For only the second time during the series, a voice communication was made for a few seconds from Project Tic-Toc to try to save Phillips when Billy the Kid threatened to kill him. Unfortunately this resulted with Project Tic-Toc having no visual contact with Newman and Phillips for most of the episode since they had no power to re-engage their visual link. *This was only the second time during the series were it was discussed about not tampering with history, as it looked like for a while to the Project Tic-Toc personnel that Billy the Kid had been killed. Cast *James Darren as Dr. Tony Newman *Robert Colbert as Dr. Doug Phillips *Whit Bissell as General Heywood Kirk *John Zaremba as Dr. Raymond Swain *Lee Meriwether as Dr. Ann MacGregor *Allen Case as Pat Garrett *Phil Chambers as Marshall *John Crawford as John Poe *Pitt Herbert as Tom McKinney *Harry Lauter as Wilson *Robert Walker Jr. as Billy the Kid Links The episode can be seen at hulu.com on The Time Tunnel channel Category: The Time Tunnel episodes